Met Council works to preserve mobile home parks with first-of-its-kind grant

The Metropolitan Council voted Wednesday to award nearly $235,000 in a pilot grant to a Corcoran mobile home park as part of a broader effort to protect and preserve affordable housing in the region.

The first-of-its-kind grant will help Maple Hill Estates connect to the regional wastewater system in place of its aging, on-site septic system. In return, the park owners have committed to continuing to operate the property as a mobile home park without “unreasonable lot rent increases.”

The grant comes on the heels of a steady string of mobile home park closures across the metro, where no new parks have been built since 1991. The Met Council estimates that nearly 37,000 people in the region lived in manufactured housing in 2016, representing a significant source of affordable housing, especially for low-income households.

“The region is looking at an affordable housing crisis,” said Met Council Chairwoman Alene Tchourumoff. “This is one way that we can look at trying to be innovative about the crisis.”

The Metropolitan Council’s Community Development Committee will conduct a public hearing on Monday, August 20, 2018, at 4 PM to receive public comment on the proposed 2019 Public Housing Agency (PHA) Annual Plan.